


Bird Watching

by aosav



Series: Kageyama Friendships [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9568925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aosav/pseuds/aosav
Summary: Kageyama runs the same route every day - until he runs into Tanaka.





	

Kageyama runs the same route every morning. He gets up early specifically so that he can run before school. It’s good training for volleyball – it’s good cardio and it’s a good workout for his legs.

It’s also very quiet.

The stillness of the very early morning is one of Kageyama's favorite things about his runs. He can listen to the birds that are just beginning to make noise and to the steady thumping of his feet on the road and let everything else fall away. There is no other sound except for the occasional car that passes him. He can ignore everything except for him, the road, and the birds. Kageyama runs, for the most part, so that he can play volleyball better, but the quiet and the stillness and the peace of the early mornings is also nice. He doesn’t even think about volleyball, sometimes. Sometimes, he just enjoys the quiet.

He is enjoying the quiet one morning when he turns down a normally-empty street about halfway through his route and finds himself face to face with Tanaka.

Kageyama stops in the middle of the road and stares.

Tanaka stops as well and stares back. He is dressed for a run, just like Kageyama is. He is sweaty already, so he must be in the middle of his run as well. Kageyama does not think of Tanaka as the type to run when he is not being forced into it, but apparently he is wrong.

“Kageyama-kun,” Tanaka says, after a moment. His voice seems very loud in the morning stillness, though he is probably speaking at his usual volume.

“Tanaka-san,” Kageyama says.

“You’re out early,” Tanaka says.

Kageyama nods.

“Me too,” Tanaka says. He wipes his arm across his forehead, brushing at the sweat there. Then he drops his arm from his face and waves his hand, gesturing around them. “This is the best time to run,” he says.

“Yes,” Kageyama says, more eagerly, nodding again. He loves this time of day.

“Yeah,” Tanaka says. He shifts his weight as if he is about to begin running again, but he makes no move to actually do so.

Kageyama shifts his weight as well. He glances up the street, then he looks back at Tanaka. He would like to continue his run but he doesn’t want to be rude to Tanaka. He isn’t very good at this – interacting with people for no particular reason. Generally, Kageyama avoids these situations.

Fortunately, Tanaka also seems eager to continue his run. Tanaka coughs once and looks away, down the street in the opposite direction that Kageyama takes from here.

“Well,” Tanaka says, “I don’t want to keep you from your run, and I have a run to finish too, so I guess I’ll see you at school, Kageyama-kun.”

“Yes,” Kageyama says again.

“Right,” Tanaka says. “Well, have a good run!” Then he waves and turns away from Kageyama and begins jogging down the street. He picks up speed as he approaches the corner and, as he turns onto the next street, he turns and waves at Kageyama again. Then he is gone.

Kageyama stares after him, half expecting Tanaka to come back and keep talking. Tanaka is a very loud person, and, despite his volume, he was surprisingly calm just now.

He does not come back, though, and, after a moment, Kageyama turns in the opposite direction and resumes his own run, following his usual route.

 

* * *

 

Tanaka does not mention them seeing each other that morning when they have volleyball practice, so Kageyama doesn’t mention it either. Tanaka is on one side of the gym making a lot of noise with Noya and Kageyama is on the other side of the gym trying to get Hinata to use his arms properly.

Tanaka and Noya both look over at Kageyama and Hinata sometimes – a lot of times, actually. They whisper together and grin and occasionally laugh, all of which is normal for them but, for some reason, today it leaves Kageyama feeling as though he is missing something. Maybe it’s because it seems like they are looking at Kageyama more than at Hinata. Hinata is the one messing up, but they aren’t watching him as much as they are watching Kageyama. It’s a bit strange, but if they are assessing Kageyama's playing so that they can give him feedback, Kageyama is glad to have them watch him.

Unfortunately, Tanaka and Noya do not approach Kageyama during practice, and Hinata keeps Kageyama too busy for him to approach them to ask for their input. When practice is over, though, Tanaka grins and slaps Kageyama's shoulder as they leave the gym.

“See you tomorrow, Kageyama-kun!” Tanaka says. Then he walks away with Noya and the other second years, once again whispering among themselves.

Kageyama watches him go.

Again, he feels like he is missing something.

There’s no point in wondering about it, though. People are confusing, and people like Tanaka are more confusing than most.

Kageyama spends his walk home going over everything he did at practice to try to figure out what Tanaka and Noya might have wanted to critique so that he can go ahead and start correcting it.

 

* * *

 

Kageyama is very surprised to see Tanaka on his run the next morning, standing in the exact same spot that Kageyama came across him at yesterday.

“Kageyama-kun!” Tanaka says, grinning. “I thought I might see you if I came back this way again. You seem like the type to have a set route, am I right?”

“Yes,” Kageyama says. “It’s more efficient to know where I’m going to run ahead of time.”

“Of course it is,” Tanaka says. “But less spontaneous, don’t you think?”

“I don’t run to be spontaneous,” Kageyama says. “I run to be better at volleyball.” He does not tell Tanaka that he also likes the quiet and the peacefulness of this time of day. Kageyama mostly runs because of volleyball, and the other reason is kind of stupid.

“How about we run together?” Tanaka says. “It’ll be fun!”

“Like a race?” Kageyama says. He and Hinata race all the time, and he likes racing Hinata – it challenges him; Hinata is very fast – but his morning runs are supposed to be calming before he has to go to school and deal with all of the people and the noise and the ridiculous schoolwork.

“No,” Tanaka says, “just running together. I know you and Hinata go kind of crazy for racing, but I thought we could just run together.”

Kageyama does not see the point of that, but he nods anyway. Tanaka is his upperclassman and Kageyama wants to be respectful. This also might be a good opportunity to ask about whatever Tanaka and Noya wanted to critique him on at practice yesterday.

“Great!” Tanaka says. He begins running in place, lifting his knees high, and grinning at Kageyama. “Which way do you go from here?” he asks. “I don’t want to throw you off your routine.”

“This way,” Kageyama says, pointing up the street.

“Let’s go, then!” Tanaka says. He gestures for Kageyama to lead the way.

Kageyama starts running again. Tanaka moves to run next to him, keeping pace with him.

They run in silence for a little while, and Kageyama begins to relax. He focuses on the soft sounds that always dominate his morning runs. There are two sets of pounding footsteps instead of just his own, but that isn’t bad. He can still hear the birds. The light is still gentle and calming. Tanaka being here doesn’t have to change things after all, apparently.

Then Tanaka starts talking.

“So, Kageyama-kun,” Tanaka says. Kageyama turns his head to look at Tanaka. Tanaka is looking back at Kageyama. “Do you ever do anything that isn’t about volleyball?” Tanaka asks. He arches one eyebrow at Kageyama as he speaks.

Kageyama frowns. Of course he does things that aren’t about volleyball. He eats. He sleeps. He does his schoolwork. None of those things are about volleyball.

“I do schoolwork,” Kageyama says.

“Yeah, but you have to do schoolwork,” Tanaka says. “I’m talking about hobbies.”

“I run,” Kageyama says.

“ _For volleyball_ ,” Tanaka says, slowly. He shakes his head. “Don’t you have any hobbies that have nothing to do with volleyball at all?”

They turn onto another street and Kageyama gives it some thought. He isn’t sure what counts as a hobby. He knows that running is a hobby. Other than the things he has to do – like schoolwork and chores – he mostly focuses on volleyball. There is one thing he likes, though, that has nothing to do with volleyball. It might not count as a hobby, but it isn’t about volleyball.

“I like birds,” Kageyama says.

“Birds?” Tanaka says.

Kageyama nods.

“Like, any kind of bird?” Tanaka asks. “Or a particular kind?”

“Any kind of bird,” Kageyama says. “I like watching them.”

“Watching them do what?” Tanaka asks.

“Anything,” Kageyama says. He just likes watching birds. He likes watching them fly and hop around on the ground and he likes watching bigger types of birds hunt in nature documentaries. Kageyama just likes birds.

“Huh,” Tanaka says.

Tanaka doesn’t say anything else for a while. Kageyama likes having the quiet back, so he doesn’t speak either. It surprises Kageyama that Tanaka is keeping pace with him so easily. Kageyama does not run full out in the mornings – there’s no reason to exhaust himself before school and, especially, before practice after school – but he still runs pretty fast. Tanaka is matching his speed without complaining at all.

Racing Hinata is nice, in its own way, but this is good too. Kageyama still doesn’t know what the point of running with someone is, but he kind of likes it.

A few streets before Kageyama gets back to his house, Tanaka says that he should get home and turns back the way they came. Kageyama finishes the rest of his run alone.

One set of footsteps sounds strange after spending most of the morning listening to two.

 

* * *

 

At practice after school that day, Tanaka comes over to where Kageyama is when they break off to work on individual skills. Kageyama perks up. Maybe Tanaka is going to tell Kageyama what he and Noya saw that Kageyama was doing wrong yesterday. Kageyama completely forgot to ask when he and Tanaka were running together, but he still wants to know.

“Have you ever thought about running at the park?” Tanaka asks.

Kageyama stares at him. It takes him a minute to shift from thinking about volleyball to thinking about something else. Tanaka waits, spinning a volleyball in his hands.

“No,” Kageyama says. His route is precisely measured to give him a one-hour run. He doesn’t alter it when he runs and he hasn’t ever bothered to think about planning a new route because that would take time away from volleyball. His current route is fine; there’s no need to change it.

“Hm,” Tanaka says. He looks over his shoulder at Noya. Noya makes a face at Tanaka that Kageyama does not understand. Then Tanaka looks back at Kageyama. “You wanna practice receives?” he asks.

Kageyama does want to practice receives.

They spend the majority of the rest of practice working on receives. Kageyama also asks Tanaka what he and Noya wanted to critique at their last practice.

Tanaka’s expression scrunches up for a moment and then clears, and he waves a hand at Kageyama. He says that he and Noya were just admiring Kageyama's form, which is disappointing. Kageyama likes getting feedback from more experienced players.

Once again, Tanaka says goodbye to Kageyama specifically when they leave the gym. Kageyama says goodbye back.

The grins that Tanaka and Noya exchange are confusing, so Kageyama ignores them.

He thinks about volleyball instead.

 

* * *

 

Seeing Tanaka standing in the street, where they have met twice before now, is less surprising this time.

“Tanaka-san,” Kageyama says.

“Kageyama-kun,” Tanaka says. “I thought we might change things up a bit today.”

Kageyama doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Tanaka being here _is_ changing things up for Kageyama. Kageyama always runs alone in the mornings, except that Tanaka has been here every day for the past three days.

“If we go that way –” Tanaka points down the street, the way that Kageyama does not go “– instead of that way –” he points in the direction that Kageyama runs “– the park is just a street away.” Tanaka looks at Kageyama, then. He drops his arm.

The location of the park is meaningless to Kageyama. He doesn’t know why Tanaka is telling him this.

“I go this way,” Kageyama says, pointing up the street.

“I know you do,” Tanaka says. “What I’m suggesting is a change in your routine.”

“Why?” Kageyama asks. His routine is fine. The route his runs takes him almost exactly an hour – when he isn’t stopped in the street by Tanaka, which has happened three times now – and Kageyama doesn’t have to think about where he is going; he can let his mind wander or focus on the birds and his own footsteps.

“Because I think it’ll be good for you,” Tanaka says. “Come on,” he turns, gesturing for Kageyama to follow him, and begins jogging down the street, away from Kageyama's usual route.

Kageyama hesitates. He doesn’t really want to alter his route. His route is fine. But he also doesn’t want to be disrespectful of Tanaka. Tanaka is a great upperclassman. Kageyama likes and respects Tanaka as a volleyball player.

“Come on, Kageyama-kun!” Tanaka calls back, without turning around. “Unless you’re scared!”

Kageyama is not scared.

He runs after Tanaka, catching up quickly since Tanaka was only jogging. Once Kageyama has caught him, Tanaka increases his pace so that they are running at the speed that Kageyama usually runs.

Tanaka doesn’t say anything, but he smiles.

The park really is close to where they are. Just like Tanaka said, they turn at the end of the street and the park is only one street away after that. Tanaka seems to know exactly where he is going. He leads Kageyama into the park and onto a paved pathway that winds beneath the trees.

It’s nice.

They are not alone in the park, but it’s very quiet here despite the number of people. Everyone they see is either running like they are or biking. They also see a lot of birds. Kageyama follows closely at Tanaka’s side, but he keeps turning his head to look at the birds. There are feeders up in the trees, and every single one is swarmed with birds. The sound they make is beautiful, all the different cries and calls blending together beneath the trees. The way the light filters through the trees here, which lean over the running path, is beautiful too. It isn’t the same as Kageyama's usual runs, but it is peaceful in its own way.

Kageyama expects Tanaka to begin talking at any moment, but Tanaka doesn’t. They run in silence, all the way around the park and back to the entrance. By the time they finish the loop, Kageyama's hour is almost over – he has just enough time to run back to his house.

“See you at school, Kageyama-kun,” Tanaka says as they exit the park, jerking his thumb away from the way that Kageyama will go to get home and turning in that direction as well.

“See you then, Tanaka-san,” Kageyama says.

He turns towards home, but he looks over his shoulder at the park several times before it is out of sight. The trees that line the streets he runs down on his way home are nice, but they don’t crowd over him the way the ones in the park do. The birdsongs he hears coming from the trees and power lines are soothing, but he liked the jumble of different songs in the park, too.

His usual routine is fine. He wouldn’t have gone looking for another place to run if Tanaka had not taken him there.

But Kageyama is kind of glad that he did.

 

* * *

 

At practice, Tanaka works with Kageyama again. Hinata is displeased until Tanaka has Kageyama set for them both. Tanaka talks to Kageyama, too. He asks Kageyama about birds, mostly, and Kageyama answers him.

Noya is watching Kageyama again. When he and Tanaka walk home together, they both look pleased about something.

 

* * *

 

Tanaka is there, at their meeting place, the next morning. He grins and turns towards the park without saying a word.

Kageyama follows him.

 

* * *

 

“And what’s that one?”

“A Ryukyu minivet.”

“Uh-huh. Weird name. And that one?”

“With the red on its chest?”

“Yeah.”

“A red-throated pipit, I think, but it’s too far away for me to be really sure.”

“And that one?”

“An eastern crowned warbler. You can tell because of how it sounds.”

“You really do like birds.”

“Yes.”

“It’s cool. What’s that one?”

 

* * *

 

“So you and Tanaka are running together,” Noya says as he and Kageyama put away the volleyballs after practice.

Noya isn’t wrong, but Kageyama hesitates. He and Tanaka have run together every day for eight days now, but Kageyama doesn’t know how long it will last. He likes running with Tanaka. He likes the park and talking about birds and hearing two sets of footsteps when they stop talking and just run. Kageyama likes meeting Tanaka and running together, but he still thinks of it as being strange – he doesn’t run with Tanaka usually, it’s just a thing that is happening right now.

“I’m glad,” Noya says. Kageyama looks at him. Noya is maneuvering the cart of volleyballs into the corner, and his gaze is focused on that. “Hinata's easy,” Noya says, “and so is Yamaguchi. Tsukki is easy too if you look past the snarky comments – he wants to be part of the team, he’s just afraid to open up.”

Kageyama does not know why Noya is talking about this with him.

“But _you_ ,” Noya continues, giving the cart a shove that knocks a mop over. Kageyama grabs at the mop and then pulls it out of the way. Noya glances at him and grins, then turns back to the cart. “ _You_ ,” he says again, “are a tough nut to crack. We’ve been trying to figure out how to do it for ages.”

“Who has?” Kageyama asks.

“Tanaka and me,” Noya says. “Obviously. Suga kept saying to give you space, and of course Daichi agreed with him, but we knew better. Then Tanaka went down a different street for his run and _bam_!” Noya shoves the cart again and, this time, it pushes past whatever was stopping it and crashes into the wall. “Hm,” Noya says. He brushes his hands together and turns to face Kageyama. “There you were,” Noya says. “So we knew we had to act on it.”

Kageyama is confused.

Noya smiles, but it’s gentler than his usual smile. “You’re part of this team, Kageyama,” Noya says. “We want to make sure you know that.”

Kageyama’s fingers wrap more tightly around the mop that he is holding. His chest feels tight.

Noya steps forward, away from the cart and towards Kageyama, and punches Kageyama’s shoulder. It hurts more than Kageyama thinks it should, given Noya's size. Noya grins, back to his usual brilliance.

“I’m glad you’re running together,” Noya says. He punches Kageyama's shoulder again, and then he walks out of the storage closet and leaves Kageyama there, confused and clutching a mop.

Kageyama stays there for a few more minutes, thinking. Thinking about Noya. Thinking about Tanaka. Thinking about teammates – being part of a team. Thinking about running and the park and birds.

Then, he makes a decision.

 

* * *

 

When Kageyama and Tanaka arrive at the park the next morning, Kageyama does not wait to see if Tanaka is going to be quiet or ask some more questions about birds. Kageyama speaks first.

“Tanaka-san,” Kageyama says, feeling very stiff and uncomfortable.

“Yeah, Kageyama-kun?” Tanaka says, glancing over at him.

“Do you –” Kageyama pauses. He isn’t good at this. Tanaka has been making an effort, though. Noya said that Tanaka is trying to help him be part of the team. Kageyama wants to be part of the team. He wants that desperately. “Do you have any hobbies, Tanaka-san?” Kageyama asks in a rush.

For a moment, Tanaka is silent. Kageyama is too nervous to look at him. Kageyama keeps his eyes forward, not even turning his head to look at the birds that he can hear around them.

It is very quiet, and, for once, Kageyama does not like it.

Tanaka clears his throat. Kageyama glances at him. Tanaka meets his gaze and grins.

Then Tanaka starts talking.

Kageyama listens to him, and to two sets of footsteps, all the way through the park.


End file.
